182: The Ups and Downs of a Runner’s High

Do you know that feeling when you’re running and you feel like you can solve any problem? Or if you’re running outside and with a friend in a new place, that runner’s high is even more intense? If you can relate to this, then you may enjoy today’s episode.

Steven Kotler is a New York Times best-selling author, award-winning journalist, and co-founder and director of research for the Flow Genome Project. His work has been translated in over thirty languages, and his articles have appeared in over eighty publications, including The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Wired, GQ, Outside, Popular Science, Discover and the Wall Street Journal. He also writes Far Frontiers, which is a blog about technology and innovation for Forbes.com. He is co-founder of the Rancho de Chihuahua dog sanctuary in northern New Mexico.

Please note that this episode discusses illegal drugs and depression. If either of these topics could be a trigger, use your own discretion.

We discuss the following:

How flow helped him overcome Lyme disease

What flow is, and how people achieve it in different ways

How the suicide rate is growing and why

Ongoing trials that help people who suffer from depression

The downside of being in flow

How an electronic robot named Ellie helps veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Why it’s important to know your middle ground

How you can find out what type of flow you have

Serena Marie, RD, discusses the encouraging research around circumin, also known as turmeric and how it helps people who have diabetes, cancer, depression, and much more. Turmeric looks like a root vegetable—kind of like ginger—but it is not as yellow. When you combine black pepper with turmeric, you increase the benefits of turmeric.

Some good ways to increase circumin in your diet are to mix it with kefir or put it on chicken, fish, and chick peas. You can even make a faux Bloody Mary in your blender by mixing tomatoes, root turmeric, ginger, and celery.

2017 is the year of the Flourishing Experiment! If you’d like to join a group to help you with your habits and resolutions, or create a Flourishing Experiment yourself, reach out to Kari at Kari@TheRunningLifestyle.com for more information.

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